Ames Tribune Just days after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, an Asian American father and his two sons were nearly stabbed to death inside a Texas grocery store. The man charged in the attack “thought the family was Chinese and spreading coronavirus,” according to the FBI, which is investigating the case as a hate crime. In the year since, thousands of hate-fueled incidents across the country have sparked fear among Asian Americans, including in Iowa. “It's starting to hit too close to home,” said Nu Huynh, executive director of the Iowa Asian Alliance. “It's not just strangers that we see on TV, ... it could be our parents and our friends."